TheJakartaPost
Please Update your browser
Your browser is out of date, and may not be compatible with our website. A list of the most popular web browsers can be found below.
Just click on the icons to get to the download page.
Donor countries' aversion to coal retirement could render JETP 'meaningless'
Experts say the coalition of donor countries' reluctance to fund coal plant retirements could undermine the success of the Just Energy Transition Partnership (JETP) Indonesia, signed in November 2022.
Change text size
Gift Premium Articles
to Anyone
Share the best of The Jakarta Post with friends, family, or colleagues. As a subscriber, you can gift 3 to 5 articles each month that anyone can read—no subscription needed!
Smoke and steam billows on July 11, 2020 from a coal-fired power plant belonging to Indonesia Power, located next to the planned site for the Java 9 and 10 power generation unit (PGU) development project in Suralaya, Banten. (Reuters/Willy Kurniawan)
T
he government has again expressed its doubt that the International Partners Group (IPG), a coalition of Western countries coled by the United States and Japan, is willing to help fund the retirement of Indonesia’s coal-fired power plants, which would signal a major setback to the country achieving its emissions reduction goal.
Experts say the coalition’s reluctance to fund coal plant retirements could undermine the success of the Just Energy Transition Partnership (JETP) Indonesia, signed in November 2022.
Speaking to The Jakarta Post on Wednesday, executive director Bhima Yudhistira Adhinegara of the Center of Economic and Law Studies (CELIOS) think tank said the JETP had become overly “donor-driven” and less oriented toward meeting the specific needs of Indonesia.
“Without [early coal plant retirement],” Bhima said, “the commercialization of renewable energy will become less feasible.”
Fabby Tumiwa, executive director of the Jakarta-based think tank Institute for Essential Services Reform (IESR), lamented that the IPG’s reluctance to fund early coal retirement might render the JETP deal useless.
“If the focus was only on renewable energy and transmission, [Indonesia] would not require JETP funding,” Fabby told the Post on Friday, “especially since [the JETP] was commercial in nature and not in the form of a grant.”
The JETP program has pledged US$20 billion to Indonesia, comprised of $10 billion in public grants and concessional loans from multinational development banks and the IPG. The remaining $10 billion are investments from private financial institutions under the Glasgow Financial Alliance for Net Zero (GFANZ).
